Brexit explained 2

This series of posts does not set out to explain what Brexit is, but why Brexit was the right choice for the English and Welsh electorate. This is the second post in the series, see the first post.

Common Fisheries Policy

The Common Fisheries Policy (CFP) is a policy of the European Union that regulates the fishing industry. The current format of the CFP was agreed in 2014 (source). The CFP has been in operation since the 1970s and has been reformed a number of times. The fishing industry is continuing to decline, with a 9% reduction in fishing boats and a 12% reduction in fisherman from 2004 to 2014 (source). The reduction in fishing boats was 26% from 1996 to 2014 (same source, page 28). The arguments I made against the CAP in the last post, regarding its impact on people in the third world, are also true of the CFP.

The CFP is supposed to protect fish stocks from over-fishing, as the UK government did successfully before joining the European Community. However, 75% of fish stocks are depleted currently. A full list of the arguments (and counter arguments) can be found here.
The point is this: If the EU is ipso-facto a good thing, why am I so little challenged in finding things that are leaving people in poverty in the third world, bad for the environment and bad for the economy? The EU is a good thing in principle - yes - but it doesn't work because there are competing interests which are not resolved by a good structure.

Let's leave the last-word to the Guardian, the EU's strongest voice in the UK's media: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2011/mar/02/discard-common-fisheries-policy-waste-eu